February 22, 2021

 

USSEC: Ingredients, quality control vital for animal feed

 

 

Quality control and nutrient assessment of animal feed are critical during periods of relatively high input prices, said Brent Babb, the US Soybean Export Council's regional director of Europe and Middle East/North Africa (MENA) during a virtual event this month.

 

The event was attended by feed industry professionals from Maghreb, also known as Northwest Africa. Last year, Morocco, a part of Maghreb, represented US soy's eighth largest market for soybean meal and the sixth largest importer of soy oil from the United States.

 

Key laboratory managers, nutritionists, quality controllers and formulators received technical support on the overall quality of US soy products with a special emphasis on soybean meal as the key market driver. Quality control from sample selection, analytical methods, chemical composition, nutritive value, anti-nutritional factor assessment, factors affecting quality and nutrient profile, and management were among the main topics covered.

 

USSEC consultant Adam C. Fahrenholz, associate professor at North Carolina State's feed milling programme, presented practical information on "Sampling and Receiving Quality Control for Soybean Meal" and "The Use of Soybean Meal in Pelleted Animal Feeds."

 

"Not all soybean meals are equal," he told the 11 attending feed professionals. He stressed that digestibility of essential amino acids is what differentiates US soybean meal. Fahrenholz concluded that during this time, communicating with customers can be done passively through newsletters and value blogs to reach wide audiences with information that can be used at their convenience, but also needs to be done through active communications such as webinars to allow customers to engage in real time, which enhances the building of relationships and mutual interest in working together.

 

Mostafa Raiss El Fenni, former director of research and development at Micro Tracers, Inc. in San Francisco, expanded participants' knowledge on mix homogeneity, cross contamination, coding and traceability in his presentation "Quality Assurance Control Procedures: Why Coding Micro Ingredients and Feeds?"

 

Preceding the event, a US soybean meal sample ring test was held in participating Moroccan laboratories with the ultimate goal of further educating customers on how to differentiate US soybean products from other origins, use appropriate quality analytical methods and highlighting US soybean meal's nutrient profile.

 

The opportunity to ask specific questions about methods, results interpretations and specifications tailored to their particular interests and concerns made the programme well received by attendees who were left with a greater understanding of the benefits of US soy products and quality along with methods used for quality control.

 

According to USSEC, Maghreb markets use on average more than 2.5 million tonnes of soybean meal annually.

 

Morocco is the largest US soybean meal buyer in the MENA region.

 

Expanding knowledge on the strength and intrinsic advantages of US soy products to end users and differentiating US soybean meal from meal of other origins, helps to expand and protect US market share, USSEC said.

 

- USSEC